An Overview of the Teaching Assistant Consultant Program for Developing Competency in Novice Engineering Graduate Teaching Assistants

Abstract

As engineering education strives to progress towards a student-centric learning model, a competency gap with future educators becomes more apparent. In particular, the expectation of graduate student teaching assistants (GTAs) in attaining teaching competency to support this dynamic learning environment, often without sufficient training, is unrealistic.In the following paper, we present an implementation of the flexible Teaching Assistant Consultant (TAC) program, which serves to support the development of novice GTA competencies using a discipline-specific model with emphasis on assisting the unique challenges of international teaching assistants.We introduce the specific role of the TAC in terms of core principles and deliverables, and the strategic structure of the campus wide program at the University of Victoria. We conclude by detailing the specific implementation of the program in engineering by illustrating the role and deliverables of the engineering TAC.